The New Amateur

Many years ago when Raffles was at the fictional crease an amateur could be loosely defined as someone who could play lovely cricket but was too well moneyed to need to. The word itself conveyed playing for the love of the game, where passion, not money was the motivation. Today I'd like to suggest a new use for the term.

Perhaps being an amateur nowadays means playing for the love of the game where the motivation is not necessarily the belief that we can excel but the determination to exceed expectations, particularly our own.

People of all ages can be amateurs in this sense but perhaps it is particularly applicable to older players. When a young person comes to cricket the opportunity is there to develop skills which can become deeply embedded so that the possibility of competing in a team against an age appropriate level is always there. For most men age is not too tricky a problem. Many local clubs have several elevens and getting older is rarely, in and of itself a barrier to playing as part of a team provided of course you have always played. Getting into playing though is not always easy as an adult, particularly for women but also for men approaching the game for the first time. Cricket isn't alone in having a problem encouraging first time adult participation but might be slower than other sports to recognise it.

Underlying the lack of investment in encouraging older people to take up sports is probably the question “Why bother?” After all a person who begins playing at 52, 35 or even in the vast majority of sports, 20 is never going to complete professionally. It is a big and dangerous assumption that the only reason to play a sport is the objective of making a living at it.

Golf is a good touchstone, it has the opposite problem to most sports and is putting it's efforts into encouraging youth participation. It hardly needs to advertise to adults, no-one considers it unusual for an adult, even a superannuated one to take up golf. Professional golfers of course don't need to run down the course but the level of skill and precision is something which requires a lot of honing. I am certain that pros also have excellent fitness levels. However that doesn't preclude people of all ages playing golf for the love of the game. Many clubs offer tuition for players regardless of age, gender and ability.

Cricket shouldn't be a difficult sport to open up to all comers. It can be a hard impact, high octane activity or it can be a more ambulatory sport, literally in the form known as 'walking cricket' which has taken off in some areas as a pastime for the elderly. Many clubs are committed to including players with mental and physical disabilities, although like provision for adult newcomers the situation is geographically variable.

The adult novice, male or female, able bodied or disabled can find it difficult to know where to begin. Someone without much experience who doesn't see themselves as 'useful' to the club is bound to wonder if there is any point in trying to get involved. Clubs need to spell out that people of all ages are encouraged to get involved, if indeed they are. Joining in with a game from scratch is very daunting for a person with no playing experience so there needs to be an entry level option for adults with coaching provided. These are things I sought out for myself overcoming huge personal diffidence simply because I was so desperate to be involved in the game. Not everyone is desperate. Many adults would like to be invited into playing, encouraged to try the sport for the first time. I feel sure there are many potential players and teams out there. The pay off for the club would be passionate advocates, committed volunteers and perhaps also the children of these adults as members. The children targeted by the ECB's All Stars programme who have caught the bug in the crucial early years in which sports preferences are established.